The present invention relates to a fender having a shock-absorber pad or pads made of elastic material such as polyethylene, nylon rubber, etc. mounted to its tip end portion. More particularly it relates to a mount structure of such shock-absorber pads to a fender.
FIG. 1 shows one example of a hollow cylindrical fender made of rubber in the prior art. Anchor bolts 03 are buried in a quay wall 01 to project from its side surface 02, a base end flange 04 of a fender 00 is fitted to these anchor bolts 03 and it is mounted to the side surface 02 by means of nuts 05. To a tip end flange 06 of the fender 00 is mounted a frame 07 composed of material such as section steel, and to the front surface of this frame 07 is preliminarily welded a steel plate 08. Shock-absorber pads made of synthetic resin having a relatively easily slidable property such as polyethylene, nylon and the like or pads made of soft rubber are brought into contact with the front surface of the steel plate 08. As shown in FIG. 2, bolts 011 are made to penetrate from recesses 010 in the shock-absorber pad 09 through the shock-absorber pad 09 and the steel plate 08 and project from the steel plate 08, and by threadedly engaging nuts 012 with these bolts 011 and fastening them, the shock-absorber pad 09 is fixed to the steel plate 08.
In the above-described fender in the prior art, under the condition where a ship is moored in the proximity of a quay, each time the hull of the ship comes into contact with the shock-absorber pad 09 made of synthetic resin, the front surface of this shock-absorber pad 09 will wear, and if this wearing proceeds and the shock-absorber pad 09 becomes thin, then the hull would come into contact with the head of the bolt 011, and inevitably it would be damaged.
In addition, since the recess 010 in the shock-absorber pad 09 necessitates a sufficient space for loosely receiving a wrench socket to be engaged with the head of the bolt 011, a contact surface area of the shock-absorber pad 09 with the hull is reduced, and so, wearing of the shock-absorber pad 09 is fast.
Furthermore, it is liable that accessories of the hull are caught by the recess 010 of the shock-absorber pad 09. Hence a large force in the direction parallel to the quay wall side surface 02 acts upon the fender main body 00 and the shock-absorber pad 09.
Still further, if the number of the recesses 010 per one shock-absorber pad 09 is reduced so that the contact surface area of the shock-absorber pad 09 may not be reduced as much as possible, then in the event that one bolt 011 has been damaged, a fixing force for that portion would be greatly reduced. Hence, damage of the shock-absorber pad 09 peeling off is apt to occur, and so, reliability is low.